Champion of the Day: Katie M. Lee

NPC Jr Nationals Women's Physique Class D Champion



We're more used to seeing the gorgeous FMS heartthrob Katie Lee (Hot and Hard 100 #85) asking the questions before outgunning the interviewee for HD Physiques at Expos and shows all over, so it's nice to see her oiled, tanned and ripped and this time answering the questions with Ashley Adams holding the mic. Katie had just stepped off stage after winning her class at the NPC Jr USAs, and Ashley is quite right to take a step back and give the camera nothing but the bronzed Ms Lee when the (same old) questions and answers stop and the flexing starts at around the 4.00...



Alright Katie you're famous for one thing, your fans wanna see it, says Ashley, though to be honest when I saw the clip for the first time I spent pretty much the entire four minutes before Katie flexes transfixed by her right bicep (and shoulder) dancing hypnotically as she gesticulates (as all FBBs seem to do in such circumstances quite a lot more than your average woman) throughout their less-than-riveting chat.



Katie at the Jr Nationals

Been a long, hard 20-week contest prep, Katie told her Instagram followers between the prejudging and finals, more than a little excited that she had been front and centre in the first callout. And although she didn't win the overall title the following evening, she was "beyond excited" to have landed one of the four pro cards on offer.



More from the Jr Nationals

In the shape of her life (and that is saying something), she didn't waste any time at all putting it to use, returning to Chicago four weeks later for another "amazing weekend". Making her debut in a field of 18 (or 19 according to Katie, but I counted 18) women, she earned herself a 6th place finish. More than I could ever ask for, she said.



Katie enjoys her pro debut

The success had been coming. Katie had finished 2nd at the Jr USAs in May, after consistently placing 4th or 5th at national level shows during 2014 and 2015. Meanwhile, those magnificent arms did not escape the notice of the female muscle lovin' brethren. Dem peaks are steeper than Everest! exclaimed one impressed fan.



But Katie's not doing it for us. Well, not unless she's wearing nothing but a tan, a pair of shades and a pink bikini... But anyway, she's not doing it for us! I am here to motivate and inspire young women that they can be muscular, strong and still be feminine! she says, and it seems that I and several FMS readers and nearly 7,000 IG followers agree that so far in her three-year career she's been doing a pretty good job of it.



She big and beefy in the off-season, lean and tight for competitions, so whatever way you like it, Katie's got it covered. She's gorgeous whatever condition she's in, and on top of that, is it just me who's noticed her voice has got ever so slightly deeper and sexier over the last year? Given the auspicious start she has made to her pro career, I wonder if it's possible that Katie Lee is one of those rare women about whom the much-maligned IFBB judges and the (much-maligned) female muscle fans agree!



Gorgeous.



Congratulations Katie!

Champion of the Day: Katrín Tanja Davíðsdóttir

Crossfit Games Fittest on Earth



The winner of the 2015 Crossfit Games is once again the Fittest on Earth in 2016. Katrin became only the second woman to win the Games two years in a row (her compatriot Annie Thorisdottir in 2011-12 was the first). In fact, the top four, Katrin, Australia's Tia-Clair Toomey, fellow Icelander Sara Sigmundsdottir, and Britain's Samantha Briggs (in that order), all took the same places they had in 2015.



It still seems kind of unreal, she told Men's Fitness soon after she'd completed her triumph. It still seems crazy that it's actually over. I was going to be happy with the weekend regardless of the outcome, but the win is such a big bonus. Indeed. Katrin pockets a winner's cheque for a cool $275,000 plus about $13,000 in performance bonuses! But of course it's not about the money. Her prize also, rather controversially, included a gun donated by one of the Games' sponsors. Really. She won a handgun, and apparently they are going to allow her back into Iceland with it.



Anyway, back to our champion. Enjoyed every second out there, she told her Instagram followers. And if the pictures are anything to go by, she really did.



You may remember that at the Games the individual events aren't announced until just before the competition starts. Each Games is therefore unique, and athletes have to prepare for pretty much anything from ocean swimming and rope climbs to handstand walks and whatever "The Separator" is. To win last year, and then to win again after a different set of twelve events is, I think you'll agree, quite an achievement.



So, what's her secret? I strive to be excellent, she says. I strive to excel at anything that I do. I take care of every single percent that I can take care of. I do that. I make sure I sleep enough. I make sure I eat perfect. I make sure I warm up well. I make sure that I lift well. I make sure that I give everything that I have to every workout. I want to constantly become solidly better than how I woke up.



She's not the worst advert they could have for the sport, is she?



Til hamingju Katrin!

Champion of the Day: Mindi O'Brien

IFBB Vancouver Pro Women's Physique Champion



I didn't realise how much of a serial champion Mindi O'Brien has become in the last few years. Her win in Vancouver at the beginning of July gave her her third pro title in the last three years following first places in Toronto (2014) and Tampa (2015).




It's her most sustained period of success since, as a Fitness competitor, she won regional and national (Canadian) titles and the IFBB South West Pro Cup in 2004. By this time her exceptional abs, her beauty, and her unusually (for Fitness) developed and peaky biceps meant she had become a sought after model for the big female muscle sites and consequently the Fitness competitor who female muscle fans would have most liked to share a pint with. She continued to compete in IFBB Pro Fitness until 2011 when injury (I believe) ended this period of her career.



Toronto 2013 (top left), & Olympias 2013-15

Her reinvention as a Physique competitor was greeted with much rejoicing among those fans who had feared they would never see her again, and led to ringing endorsements of this newest IFBB category. Praise be! wrote one after her first WPD show in Toronto in 2013. A contest worthy of Mindi! At last, and for the first time flexing those beautiful shapely muscles in anger. Thank you IFBB for Physique! Without it, I doubt the wonderful Mindi would ever have returned to the stage.


Champion: Toronto 2014 (left) & Tampa 2015

She placed 3rd in Toronto on her Physique debut, finished the season with a 2nd and two 4th places and made her first Physique Olympia appearance, placing 15th. In 2014 she returned to Toronto and won, and made the top 6 at the Olympia. Last year she was 8th at the Arnold Classic, won in Tampa, and again was 6th at the Olympia.




This year she's finished a (Fitness or Physique) career high 3rd at the Arnolds, and was runner-up in Chicago before her win in Vancouver guaranteed she'll be flexing those beautiful muscles in anger on the Olympia stage for the fourth year running.



Congratulations Mindi!

Champion of the Day: Emma Gormley

NABBA Northern Ireland Ms Trained Figure
NABBA Britain Ms Trained Figure

Northern Ireland's Emma Gormley didn't place at the 2014 NABBA Worlds...



After that, she took a break from competition to become a mother for the fourth time.


Emma with one of her PCA awards from 2016

But, towards the end of April 2016, less than a year after her daughter's birth, she was back in her posing suit, reclaiming the NABBA Northern Ireland Ms Trained Figure title she'd previously won in 2014. And she followed that up at the end of May by becoming the new NABBA Ms Britain. I came back bigger and better so maybe that year out was a good thing to do, she told local media in her hometown of Derry. "Maybe"?! On top of her NABBA activities, Emma has also competed twice in PCA (Physical Culture Association) shows, winning a national qualifying event and finishing runner-up at the British finals. It has been a good year, she says. "Good"?!


Ms Britain

Now Emma has her sights set on the NABBA Universe in October.




I assume she'll be keeping the same prep coach for that event as she's had in her corner all year. The name might well be familiar to you, it's that ol' rascal Rosanna Harte...



Congratulations to Emma and may she rule the Universe!

Champion of the Day: Anne Sheehan

NPC Masters Nationals 35+ Heavyweight & Overall Champion
NPC Masters Nationals 40+ Heavyweight & Overall Champion



And with those titles, her long-awaited IFBB pro card at the age of 43. Still can't believe it's true! she told her Instagram followers a few days after the show. It's been a dream of mine since I was 9 years old that I've been working hard for for 16 years.




I ALWAYS thought you were a major leaguer playing in the minors, wrote Roxanne Edwards, one of those followers and one of the many IFBB pros to send Anne their congratulations. Clearly in all those years in "the minors" she's made a lot of friends.



And fans. Fans of her "beautiful thick muscle". She's huge, hard to believe she isn't a pro yet, wrote one - and that was a couple of years ago, since when she has been knocking at the IFBB pro card door at national NPC events. She got robbed last year at the Nationals, losing to a woman that looked like a physique competitor, one of those fans reckons. But now, finally, that door has opened, and she's not going to be hanging around. Next weekend, all being well, she'll make her pro debut in Tampa.



They have their own tumblr, her fans. Head there for much much more of Anne, including many recent pics of her during her prep for this contest.



Let's give one of those fans the last word today. I don't care what anyone else thinks, but Anne seems to get hotter and hotter every day. I always look forward to any new material from her with great anticipation, and she never seems to disappoint. One of the hottest she-beasts in the game! Anne is one of the select few hyper-muscular women like Christine Envall, Aleesha Young, Maria Segura, and Colette Guimond. She is a tank. In my opinion she is currently the best poser around, has a bangin' body and the biggest Adam's apple of all female bodybuilders. Very sexy! 



Congratulations Anne!